Who is the greatest rock critic of all time?

Choices include but are not limited to:

Lester Bangs
Robert Christgau
Dave Marsh
Richard Meltzer
Jon Landau

And many others. Who is your choice, and why?

I will go with Dave Marsh. Loved the old Rolling Stone Record Guides.

 

Richard Goldstein

 

Martin Popoff.

 

Ellen Willis.

 

Bangs, Christgau, Greil Marcus - all three have made me hear things in ways that hadn't occurred to me, and Marcus connects a heck of a lot of dots.

There's something wrong with Dave Marsh.

 

Rick Johnson (Creem)
Nick Kent
Jon Savage

Dave Marsh drove me up the wall in my local paper when I was a kid. They printed his weekly record reviews. My all-time favorite: he called Squeeze "pedestrian hard rock". Couldn't stand him and his Springsteen worship.

 

The "greatest" implies a lot more than I want to here, I've had a few critics over the years that have helped me a lot along my musical path, so I'll just say that in modern times I am often in agreement with Heather Phares on a lot of records I love. She writes mostly for Allmusic. I haven't ever followed any of the big names on your list.

 

Paul Williams

 

Yeah, I loved that first one. The red one. Had it all marked up. I will say, though, that it included reviews by a group of reviewers. Wasn't there John Swenson, too? And a bunch of others.

 

Nik Cohn: The enthusiasm and passion in Rock From The Beginning.
Greil Marcus: Very intelligent and well written commentary. Sometimes he stretches a bit too far, but far more often he comes up with thoughtful insights. An example would be his essay on the Beatles in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock.
Ellen Willis: An excellent writer.

 

Me! ....... of course!!

 

Christgau has always been horrible. Just awful.

I wouldn't go with any of these. I've learned a ton from reading Greil Marcus, so would probably give him the nod -- but I'm not sure it's really possible to crown any one person.

 

If you mean someone who can state their opinion without being completely reviled for it, I think Mark Prindle is the only one. Of course, he's only ever done one actual review (as far as I know).

 

Richard Meltzer

 

The guy who wrote the 2 word review for Shark Sandwich

 

I don't like any of them. Too much analysis of attitude and "place in the culture" and not enough focus on the structure of the music.

 

It will always be Lester Bangs just like Elvis will always be the King of Rock and Roll.

 

I'd have to say David Fricke and Ira Robbins. Fred Goodman also. and Fred Mills

 

There is no such thing as a great rock critic.

 

and of course the late great Greg Shaw

 

None of the above. I think that all of those guys are terrible, with the exception of Bangs who I haven't read enough of to formulate a good opinion yet.

I have always liked Wilson and Alroy from Wilson and Alroy's Record Reviews and Mark Prindle. You may disagree with what they write but at least they have a point of view.

The New York Times also has a stable of great writers like Jon Pareles and Ben Ratliff. I also like Maura Johnston for pop music.

Truthfully, there are so many bad critics out there who try to over intellectualize pretty pedestrian concepts or treat musicians like idols that I have a hard time cutting through all of it. There are others who project their own ideas on what they are hearing that the critique becomes devoted from reality. The cast of Pitchfork is a good example of this, and unfortunately, they are often held as the standard bearers of modern rock journalism.

 

Fred Mills is a good one.

 

I loved those guides too. I have the red one sitting on my speaker right now BUT some of my favorite records get one or two stars and he gave The Dictators debut a block (worthless).

 

I see there's going to be a lot of agreement going on here.

 

Agreed, but the guides were FUN.